


What Happened Next

by Im_a_nurse_whats_your_super_power



Category: One day at a time - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 14:23:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18896401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Im_a_nurse_whats_your_super_power/pseuds/Im_a_nurse_whats_your_super_power
Summary: An idea I had about the potential relationship that could happen between Penelope and Schneider following the end of Season 3. I’m not sure how long this fic is going to end up at the moment but we’ll see





	What Happened Next

It was late but thankfully, Alex and Elena had finally fallen asleep. Penelope was exhausted herself, a deeply set baseline of extreme tiredness had become her new normal. She was emotionally exhausted too. Once again, she had no idea where he was. No idea what he’d done, how much he had drank, or how many pills he had swallowed. The thought brought a sickness to her stomach that could not be suppressed. This was the eighth time he had left her like this. The arguing, she was used to. She had become accustomed to the constant tension between them. The atmosphere that this created. And she had grown to expect hostility from him. But anger, anger was fairly new for them still.

For almost two hours, she fidgeted. Paced the apartment with a deep set expression of both exasperation and defeat, of defiance and forgiveness, of anger, but of love. She thought she must have worn a whole in the floor by now, she had paced it so many times. But there were no signs of him. It ate away at her insides. Causing an endless string of questions to sail around inside her head.

Was this her fault? Was he right? Did she cause this? Did she make him angry? Was she a bad mother? A failure? Who knew.

What she did know, was that she was worried. It was nearing 3am. He had never been this late before. And when she finally heard the thud at the door, the scraping noises that could only be him, drunk and struggling to connect the key to the lock, a wave of fear crashed through her. So she froze. When he finally stumbled through the door way, she brought her eyes up to meet him and was instantly taken aback by his appearance. Victor, the man she loved, with what could only be alcohol and vomit staining his shirt. His belt undone and his left shoe missing. And in his hand, yet another bottle of beer. The initial fear was replaced by a new emotion almost instantly. A terrible, seething anger swept through her, her senses became heightened, her skin tingled with it. It was white hot rage. Pure unadulterated anger that he could do this to her again. That he could do it to the kids. Again.

“Where the hell have you been.” She spat at him, through gritted teeth. In what could only be described as a growl. 

“S’not important.” He replied. Shrugging dismissively. 

“Yeah Victor, it is. The kids have been so worried, I only managed to calm them down enough to go to bed two hours ago. At one am. So I’ll ask you again, Victor. Where have you been?” She said. Her hands shaking, she wasn’t sure if it was anger, or tiredness, or fear.

“I’ve been out. Needed to get away.” He told her, a smug expression on his face. “S’not like you care anyway. So why don’t you just let me do what I wanna do lupe.” That was enough to snap her into action. She crossed the space between them and squared up to him as much as she can. Not an easy feat seeing as she was nearly 6 inches smaller than him.

“How can you even say that to me? I’m the one who has to look after you. I’m the one who cleans your drunken ass up every time you come home like this. The one who listens to you every night and is there for you through every nightmare. The one who has to pick up the pieces you leave behind and still be the one to raise OUR children. I can’t just keep letting you do this to those kids. You can’t keep putting us through this every night Victor!” She yelled it at him. Which, in hindsight, might not have been a good move. He towers over her and backs her up against the wall.

“Well, Penelope, tough shit. Because this is my life, and I’m gonna do, what I wanna do.” The slurring of his speech did nothing to mask the sheer threat behind his words. Tears began cascading down her cheeks. She was frightened of him.

“I can’t keep doing this, Victor, you need help, please!” She pleaded. And it was enough to make him turn away. Or so she thought, as he snapped back towards her, she almost didn’t see his fist, before it collided loudly and violently with the wall right next to her head. She let out a scream and cowered down to the floor.

“Please Victor, please stop? Please!” She begged him. He stared down at her. Eyes hardened and cold. 

“You know what lupe, I’m done.” He spat. Then abruptly turned and slammed out of the apartment. Leaving her crying on the floor.

She awakes from the nightmare with a start. Her body cold and shaking. Her skin cold as the cool air in her room sweeps against it, made colder by the how much she had been sweating in her sleep. She cannot help the tears that fall from her eyes. The fear of that night still very real in her mind. Her breathing is quickened. And the weight on her chest feels as though it is crushing her. 

“It was just a dream.” She tells herself. But she knows that it was so much more than that. She needs help, she thinks, as she tries in vain to quell the shaking in her hands. She reaches for her phone and, against her better judgment, given his own battles this past month, texts Schneider.

“Are you awake?” She sends him. The reply is frighteningly instant. 

“Yeah Pen, come on up x” She herself is surprised by the sigh if relief she instantly lets out. She slips out of bed and puts on her slippers, and dressing gown, before slowly padding out of the apartment. As if on Autopilot, she allows het legs to carry her straight to Schneiders, so tired, she doesn’t even think about directions, and she’s there. Without bothering to knock, she opens his door and heads inside.

Schneider is sitting on the couch waiting on her.

“Coffee is on the way Pen.” He says to her, smiling warmly. 

“Thank you.” She chokes out. Before dissolving into tears and falling down onto the sofa next to him 

“Hey, hey, talk to me Pen. You’re safe, I’ve got you and you’re safe.” He chants. His arm around her and his hand automatically rubbing circles on her back. And she does feel safe.

“It’s just, a nightmare. I had a nightmare.” She stumbles.

“Your PTS again?” He asks gently. She falters.

“Well... yeah I guess. This one was different though.” 

“How so?” His brow furrows.

“It wasn’t related to Afghanistan. I had a dream, well more of a flashback really, to the first night Victor walked out on us.” She stops, and lifts her eyes slowly to meet his. His features are fixed in a look of concern and his eyes darken just slightly, only for a second, and then it’s gone again. She wonders if its her imagination or not.

“Oh. Did he hurt you?” He asks, in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

“No. But I thought he was going to. He raised a fist. But punched the wall beside my head instead before storming out. The dream, Schneider it was so real.” Her breathing quickens again and he instantly wraps his arm around her again and lets her cry into his shoulder. 

“Sh Pen, it’s alright, you’re safe now. The kids are safe. You did everything you needed to. You’re safe here.” He tells her. She is so completely grateful to him in that moment, so she decides to finish the story.

“He didn’t come home for a couple of days. I had to tell the kids it was a work thing. He came home in the middle of the night. It must have been the first night I had slept because I didn’t hear him come in...” she lets out a sob and tries to refocus herself. He takes her hand to steady her and she squeezes it back to thank him. “He woke the kids up. He was apologising to them... saying good-b-bye. They must have been terrified by him. He smelled so strongly of booze, his clothes were torn. And he was a mess. Alex screamed and I raced through the house to find him. Elena told me what had happened. What he’d told them. Mami had already called the police. I raced back through the apartment and grabbed the car keys. He was screaming all the way. ‘This isn’t your decision Lupe’. Both the kids were hysterical. I didn’t give him the keys. The police came and they took him to hospital. The kids didn’t sleep for weeks. That was when I made the decision to leave him. Schneider, I couldn’t do it anymore, I couldn’t let the kids go through it again.” An eery silence fell on the apartment. No one talked for a while. It was a good thing.

“God Pen.” Schneider says, breaking the silence. She nods.

“It was awful.” She stops for a moment to breathe. And then realises something. “God Schneider I’m so sorry.” She blurts out quickly. His head snaps up.

“What for?” He questions instantly. She lets her gaze fall to the floor.

“It’s only been a month and I’m up here talking about Victor’s alcoholism. And for waking you up in the middle of the night. Again.” She tells him. He takes a breath.

“Pen, I can talk about it. And don’t ever apologise for waking me up to help you. You know that! Now, dogs in wigs or funny cats?” He says with a smile, lightening the mood. She smiles back.

“Oh, definitely dogs in wigs.” She replies, laughing.


End file.
